Gaucho Music Definition Essay

Defining Music Essay

614 WordsFeb 17th, 20113 Pages

Nic Giordano Comp 1 Definition Essay Music

Music; Indefinable by words alone. It is not only something you can hear but what you can feel. It is something your soul is able to reach out and touch. Music also has the power to bring us as humans, together. It is one language spoken by all cultures, sexes, races, age and religions. Music also controls our emotions; it makes us happy, sad, angry, relaxed, etc. We also can express ourselves through music. It can affect our personality.. someone who listens to classical, like Mozart or Bach, all the time is going to be smarter and more intellectual than someone who listens to rap or metal, and someone who listens to more upbeat happier music, like Ska or Swing, is more likely to…show more content…

This can be overwhelming to the listener. Knowing when and how much to utilize silence is part of listening, one of the key skills of any musician. “Just because you can’t hear it doesn’t mean it’s not music”

Music is respect. Respect to ones self and to others, whether it is someone that has the same taste in music as you, or someone that has the complete opposite taste as you. That’s something I see happen way to much, people bashing on other people because of what they listen to. Instead of accepting that everyone isn’t going to like what you like. Music is supposed to be something we all have in common, it’s supposed to bring us together and create peace, not turn us against each other. It’s something that we all do, including me at times. Not only in music but in everyday life.

Music originates from all over the world since the beginning of time. Complex or simple, fast or slow, loud or soft. It’s what you feel. It could be your method of escape or keeping you living. Music is love. Music is passion. Music is unity. Music is emotion. Music is belief. Music is beauty. Music is life. Music is perfection. Music is imperfection. Music is peace. “Through music we can live forever.”

“That’s the beauty of music. They can’t take that away from you.” -The Shawshank

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For other uses, see Gaucho (disambiguation).

A gaucho (Spanish: [ˈɡautʃo]) or gaúcho (Portuguese: [ɡaˈuʃu]) is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The gaucho is a national symbol in Argentina, Chile (Chilean Patagonia),Brazil, and Uruguay. Gauchos became greatly admired and renowned in legends, folklore and literature and became an important part of their regional cultural tradition. Beginning late in the 19th century, after the heyday of the gauchos, they were celebrated by South American writers.

The gaucho in some respects resembled members of other nineteenth century rural, horse-based cultures such as the North American cowboy (vaquero, in Spanish), the Chilean huaso, the Peruvian chalan, and morochuco, the Venezuelan or Colombianllanero, the Hawaiian paniolo,[1] the Mexican charro or the Portuguese campino.

According to the Diccionario de la lengua española, in its historical sense a gaucho was "a mestizo who, in the 18th and 19th centuries, inhabited Argentina, Uruguay, and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, was a migratory horseman, and adept in cattle work"[2] In Argentina and Uruguay today a gaucho is, according to the same source, simply "A country person, experienced in traditional livestock farming".[3] Because historical gauchos were reputed to be brave, if unruly, the word is also applied metaphorically to mean "Noble, brave and generous",[4] but also "One who is skilful in subtle tricks, crafty".[5] In Portuguese the word gaúcho (note the accent) means "An inhabitant of the plains of Rio Grande do Sul or the pampas of Argentina descended from European man and [Amer]Indian woman who devotes himself to lassoing and raising cattle and horses";[6] and in Brazil gaúcho has also acquired a metonymic signification, meaning anyone, even an urban dweller, who is a citizen of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.[7] In its purest sense, gaucho referred to the nomadic, often outlaw inhabitants of the great plains of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. In current usage, gaucho usually designates the rural working class in general."[8]

Etymology[edit]

There are several hypotheses concerning the origin of the term. It may derive from the Spanish term chaucho, in turn derived from a Turkish low-rank military term Chiaus, through Arabic Shawsh which became broadly applied to any guard/watcher or aide.[9] The first recorded use of the term dates to Argentine independence in 1816. Another scenario indicates the word may derive from the Portuguese gaudério, which was designated to the inhabitants of the vast regions of Rio Grande do Sul and Río de la Plata in the 18th century or the Portuguese garrucho that points to an instrument used by the gauchos to trap and hamstring cattle. The 18th century chronicler Alonso Carrió de la Vandera speaks of "Gauderios" when it mentions the Gauchos or "Huasos" as poorly dressed men.

Another plausible origin is from a South American indigenous language, such as Mapudunguncauchu (“vagrant, wanderer”), kauču (“friend”), or Quechua wahcha (“vagabond, poor person”). It could also derive from Arabic wahcha (وحشة) which means the state of being lonely in the wilderness.

Essential attribute: The horse[edit]

An essential attribute of a gaucho was that he was a skilled horseman. "He has taken his first lessons in riding before he is well able to walk". Without a horse the gaucho felt himself unmanned. The naturalist William Henry Hudson (who was born on the pampas of Buenos Aires province) recorded that the gauchos of his childhood used to say, a man without a horse was a man without legs. He described meeting a blind gaucho who was obliged to beg for his food yet behaved with dignity and went about on horseback. Richard W. Slatta, the author of a scholarly[13] work about gauchos, notes that the gaucho used horses to collect, mark, drive or tame cattle; to draw fishing nets; to hunt ostriches; to snare partridges; to draw well water; and even − with the help of his friends − to ride to his own burial.

By reputation the quintessential gaucho caudilloJuan Manuel de Rosas could throw his hat on the ground and scoop it up while galloping his horse, without touching the saddle with his hand.For the gaucho, the horse was absolutely essential to his survival for, said Hudson: "he must every day traverse vast distances, see quickly, judge rapidly, be ready at all times to encounter hunger and fatigue, violent changes of temperature, great and sudden perils".

A popular copla was:

Mi caballo y mi mujer

viajaron para Salta,

el caballo que se vuelva,

mi mujer que no me hace falta.[17]

("My horse and my woman/Went off to Salta/May the horse return/For I don't need my woman.")

It was the gaucho's passion to own all his steeds in matching colours. Recalled Hudson:

The gaucho, from the poorest worker on horseback to the largest owner of lands and cattle, has, or had in those days, a fancy for having all his riding-horses of one colour. Every man as a rule had his tropilla — his own half a dozen or a dozen or more saddle-horses, and he would have them all as nearly alike as possible, so that one man had chestnuts, another browns, bays, silver- or iron-greys, duns, fawns, cream-noses, or blacks, or whites, or piebalds.

The caudillo El Chacho Peñalosa described the low point of his life as "In Chile − and on foot!" (En Chile y a pie.)

Culture[edit]

The gaucho plays an important symbolic role in the nationalist feelings of this region, especially that of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The epic poemMartín Fierro by José Hernández (considered by some[20] the national epic of Argentina) used the gaucho as a symbol against corruption and of Argentine national tradition, pitted against Europeanising tendencies. Martín Fierro, the hero of the poem, is drafted into the Argentine military for a border war, deserts, and becomes an outlaw and fugitive. The image of the free gaucho is often contrasted to the slaves who worked the northern Brazilian lands. Further literary descriptions are found in Ricardo Güiraldes' Don Segundo Sombra. Like the North American cowboys, as discussed in Richard W. Slatta, Cowboys of the Americas, gauchos were generally reputed to be strong, honest, silent types, but proud and capable of violence when provoked. The gaucho tendency to violence over petty matters is also recognized as a typical trait. Gauchos' use of the famous "facón" (large knife generally tucked into the rear of the gaucho sash) is legendary, often associated with considerable bloodletting. Historically, the facón was typically the only eating instrument that a gaucho carried.

Also like the cowboy, as shown in Richard W. Slatta, Cowboys of the Americas, gauchos were and remain proud and great horseriders. Typically, a gaucho's horse constituted most of what he owned in the world. During the wars of the 19th century in the Southern Cone, the cavalries on all sides were composed almost entirely of gauchos. In Argentina, gaucho armies such as that of Martín Miguel de Güemes, slowed Spanish advances. Furthermore, many caudillos relied on gaucho armies to control the Argentine provinces.

The gaucho diet was composed almost entirely of beef while on the range, supplemented by yerba mate (erva-mate in Portuguese), an herbal infusion made from the leaves of a South American tree, a type of holly rich in caffeine and nutrients.

Gauchos[21] dressed quite distinctly from North American cowboys, and used bolas or boleadoras - in Portuguese boleadeiras - (three leather bound rocks tied together with approximately three feet long leather straps) in addition to the familiar "North American" lariat or riata. The typical gaucho outfit would include a poncho (which doubled as a saddle blanket and as sleeping gear), a facón (large knife), a rebenque (leather whip), and loose-fitting trousers called bombachas, belted with a tirador, or a chiripá, a loincloth. During winters, gauchos wore heavy wool ponchos to protect against cold.

Modern influences[edit]

Gaúcho is also the common denomination of the current inhabitants of the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Gauchito (a boy in the Argentine colors and a gaucho hat) was the mascot for the 1978 FIFA World Cup.

Fogo de Chão, a fine dining, full-service Brazilian steakhouse or churrascaria, operating in the United States, Brazil and Mexico[22], summarizes the traditional gaucho method of roasting meats over an open fire.

In popular culture[edit]

Gallery[edit]

Gaucho in authentic clothing, 1840s.

Argentine Pampas gauchos training for the Esgrima Criolla.

La Posta de San Luis by Juan León Pallière (1858).

Two gauchos in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1880.

Folklore dance: Zamba, Argentina. Gaucho.

Gauchos in Corrientes province, Argentina.

Brazilian gaúcho with typical clothing at the 2006 Farroupilha Parade.

Christison, David (1882). "The Gauchos of San Jorge, Central Uruguay". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 11: 34–52. JSTOR 2841497.

Oliven, Ruben George (2000). ""The Largest Popular Culture Movement in the Western World": Intellectuals and Gaúcho Traditionalism in Brazil". American Ethnologist. Wiley for the American Anthropological Association. 21 (1): 128–146. JSTOR 647129.

^Oliven, Ruben George (2000). ""The Largest Popular Culture Movement in the Western World": Intellectuals and Gaúcho Traditionalism in Brazil". American Ethnologist. Wiley for the American Anthropological Association. 27 (1): 128–146. doi:10.1525/ae.2000.27.1.128. JSTOR 647129. , p.129.

^Shumway, 12.

^This is rather an implausible origin given that in Spanish loanwords from Arabic, the "Gau" is often a transformation from the Arabic letter "Waw" (W).

^Leopoldo Lugones1 in "El Payador" (1916)2 and Ricardo Rojas 3 established the canonical view regarding the Martín Fierro as the National Epic of Argentina. The consequences of these considerations are discussed by Jorge Luis Borges in his essay "El Martín Fierro". An assessment of the years-long discussion hereArchived 2007-03-06 at the Wayback Machine., since p. 18